# What superstructures can you dream up? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 25, 2011, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-superstructures-can-you-dream-up/583140 "2011-05-25T12:48:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bibliovore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Bibliovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bibliovore)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2011, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-superstructures-can-you-dream-up/583140/1 "2011-05-25T12:48:08Z")
The geek in me has always been fascinated by superstuctures like man-made islands and the Burj Dubai. I’m always awed at the thought that mere human beings can conceive of such things and make them real through applied technology and sheer, staggering bloody-minded hard work. Some of my favourite ideas though still lie just beyond the realms of possibility, like the “Lily-Pad” floating man-made floating island (see [here](http://vincent.callebaut.org/page1-img-lilypad.html)), viable arcologies and mile-high buildings. So if you were unrestrained by the limits of current technology, what sorts of superstructures could you dream up and what would you like to see become reality? ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2011, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-superstructures-can-you-dream-up/583140/2 "2011-05-25T14:44:02Z")
The space elevator is my enduring dream. Especially if there’s a couple of them across the globe and they’re connected at the top by a planet-encircling ring. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2011, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-superstructures-can-you-dream-up/583140/3 "2011-05-25T15:38:47Z")
I have always been fascinated by [Old Man River City](http://solutions.synearth.net/a-community-dwelling-machine/). To be honest, this would be the perfect time for Detroit to scrounge funding and tear down the empty area, build it and move everybody into it and get rid of the rest of Old Detroit. Think how much the city would save in infrastructure cost, mass transit, school systems. No urban sprawl, everything localized, everything brand new and up to code. The now emptied lands could have landscaping around the industrial sites, or a few brand new purpose built industrial sites constructed and the industries moved to them. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2011, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-superstructures-can-you-dream-up/583140/4 "2011-05-25T16:29:11Z")
> [@Hypno-Toad](#): > > The space elevator is my enduring dream. Especially if there’s a couple of them across the globe and they’re connected at the top by a planet-encircling ring. I’ve been wondering if a high-altitude elevator is possible now. A large enough lighter than air balloon that could be tethered to the ground with an elevator running on the tether. There has to be some current maximum height for which a ballon and tether can be practically made. ---
**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2011, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-superstructures-can-you-dream-up/583140/5 "2011-05-26T11:36:49Z")
Luna City. Complete with giant mass driver to hurl wheat ferries to Earth. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2011, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-superstructures-can-you-dream-up/583140/6 "2011-05-26T21:02:59Z")
A dyson sphere. Loved the idea ever since I saw it on Star Trek: TNG as a kid. Other than that, something like SimCity 2000’s highest populated arcology. Kind of a giant self-contained building with trees and gardens up on top, and miles of corridors inside ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2011, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-superstructures-can-you-dream-up/583140/7 "2011-05-26T21:12:07Z")
When are we going to see some underwater domed cities? ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2011, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-superstructures-can-you-dream-up/583140/8 "2011-05-26T21:13:06Z")
I think we should basically turn the first couple thousand of feet below the lunar surface into millions of square miles of living space. All the excavated material could be moved to the surface to build living space upward a moon-spanning construction of even more millions of square miles of living space. The left over material could then be lifted off the surface and out to the two adjacent Lagrange points to construct Luna size satellites in those orbits. ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2011, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-superstructures-can-you-dream-up/583140/9 "2011-05-26T21:14:09Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > When are we going to see some underwater domed cities? As soon as you make the rank of Captain. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2011, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-superstructures-can-you-dream-up/583140/10 "2011-05-26T22:52:44Z")
[Some guy had the idea for something called Global Cassus.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globus_Cassus) It’s sort of a Dyson Sphere Light where I guess we would take the Earth and turn it inside out like a giant orange peel. As far as megastructures go, people have already thought of: city domes mile-high+ skyscrapers supercorridors (half-mile wide multi-modal megahighways) excessively large bridges or dams arcologies (giant multi-use hive buildings) man made island cities sea domes space elevators / skyhooks ecumenopolis (Coroscant-like city planets) Stanford torus (rotating ring space stations) Bernal spheres (another space station design) O’Neill cylinders (Babylon 5-like space habitats) Oribital rings (like a man-made Saturn ring around the Earth) Halos the Global Cassus thing Ringworlds Dyson spheres Matrioshka brain (bunch of Dyson spheres inside each other)